Family and Education

b. ?1713, nephew of Sir Henry Marshall, ld. mayor of London 1744-5.  m. Miss Brown, 1s. 2da.  Kntd. 18 Feb. 1744.

Offices Held

Alderman of London 1741, sheriff 1743-4, ld. mayor 1747-8.

Biography

The Ladbrokes were a Warwickshire family. Sir Robert’s parentage has not been ascertained, and little is known of his early life; he is said to have been a distiller, and his business address in 1754 was St. Peter’s Hill, London. He bought Idlicote in 1759, and in 1771 became a partner with his son and son-in-law, Sir Walter Rawlinson, in a London bank.

He stood unsuccessfully for London in 1747. In 1754 he seems to have had the support of Administration. Newcastle wrote about the London election to the King on 6 Apr.:1 ‘I have had a very favourable message from Sir Robert Ladbroke by the bishop of Peterborough’; and William Beckford to the Duke of Bedford on 2 May:2 ‘I am perfectly convinced by the poll of this day that Sir Robert Ladbroke is supported by the Government, and that no great dependence is to be made of his steadiness in Parliament against the present measures.’ On 7 May, the day the poll ended, Ladbroke wrote to thank Bedford for his support, and on 18 Nov. Bedford asked Ladbroke to support Lord Fane on the Reading election petition.3 Their connexion was probably through Marshe Dickenson, a follower of Bedford and ‘the most intimate friend of Sir Robert Ladbroke’.4

In Newcastle’s lists Ladbroke was classed as a Tory; and he appears in Edward Boscawen’s list of Tories who voted against Newcastle on the Mitchell election.5 He was among the Tory aldermen who presented an address to the King on 20 Aug. 1756 calling for an inquiry into the loss of Minorca, but never became a follower of Pitt: on 22 Oct. 1761 he voted in common council against the motion to thank Pitt for his services as secretary of state. Barrington considered him an ‘unexceptionable’ man for the commission of accounts in 1761: ‘one who will do you no harm’, he wrote to Newcastle on 1 Nov.6

In Bute’s list of 1761 Ladbroke is marked: ‘elected by Presbyterian interest’. He voted against the peace preliminaries, against Grenville’s Administration over Wilkes and general warrants, was classed by Newcastle, 10 May 1764, as a ‘sure friend’, and by Rockingham, July 1765, as ‘pro’. He voted with Chatham’s Administration on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767, but against them on the nullum tempus bill, 17 Feb. 1768. He voted with the Opposition on the Middlesex election, 1769-70, but was no radical or Wilkite. In the court of aldermen he opposed sending Wilkes notice of his election as alderman of London, 25 Apr. 1769, and protested against the London remonstrance of March 1770. He was classed by Robinson on the royal marriage bill, March 1772, as ‘doubtful, present’. Only three interventions in debate, short and of little consequence, are recorded.7  He died 31 Oct. 1773, aged 60.8

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Add. 32735, ff. 48-49.
• 2. Bedford mss, 30, f. 42.
• 3. Ibid. ff. 46, 102.
• 4. Jas. West to Newcastle, 14 Aug. 1756, Add. 32865, ff. 448-9.
• 5. Add. 32853, f. 260.
• 6. Add. 32865, ff. 492-4; 32929, f. 442; 32930, f. 257.
• 7. 15 Mar. 1765, Harris’s ‘Debates’; 23 Nov. 1768, Cavendish’s ‘Debates’, Egerton 215, p. 228; 14 Apr. 1769, Egerton 219, pp. 217-218.
• 8. Gent. Mag. 1773, p. 581.